App Store Reviews

Tracie11, 11 Feb 2013

A must for Discworld fans. I love it!

lateher, 11 Feb 2013

This app is fantastic. The attention to detail is astounding.

GiorgiShabamov, 12 Feb 2013

I've only just begun exploring, looking for familiar places, flipping open books at random and trying to find them on the map. I am going to spend hours and hours here, wandering around and rediscovering a city I feel have known for years.

WowRanger, 11 Feb 2013

Seriously, what more is there to say? If you are a Discworld fan this app is simply a necessity of life.

Discworld: The Ankh-Morpork Map

The first ever Discworld app, and the first ever living, breathing map of an entire fantasy city.

The challenge

Transworld Publishers approached us during the development of The Compleat Ankh-Morpork, their definitive work on Sir Terry Pratchett's most famous city. The book would contain information about thousands of locations from a fantasy world, accompanied by two beautiful, hand-illustrated maps of the city. Our challenge was to adapt this detailed reference work into an app.

The approach

Our response was simple: we wanted to bring the city to life on your iPad. In fact, we wanted to create the first app to accurately portray a living, breathing map of an entire fantasy city beneath your fingertips.

At the heart of the app is the book's beautiful hand-drawn perspective map, recreated as a bustling, animated city. As you pinch and zoom to discover the city, you’ll see its residents going about their everyday business – however unscrupulous or illegal that business may be.

It’s not just the inhabitants who come to life – the city is a living metropolis too. Smoke rises from chimneys, animals stamp their feet in the cattle market, and swimmers splash about in Mort Lake. All of this is reinforced by an original contextual soundscape that ebbs and flows as you move around, matching the atmosphere of the city at work.

Significant locations are highlighted as you pan around the map. Tapping to read more about a location displays a carousel of information and images. Selected locations also feature quotes taken directly from the Discworld novels.

As you explore the streets, you'll discover famous Discworld characters following their own lives and paths in the city. When tapped, a newly-created soundscape plays for that character, and a carousel of information appears with biography, illustrations and relevant quotes from their appearances in the books.

If you're not sure where to start exploring, then don’t worry – the Ankh-Morpork Map also contains three walking excursions of the city, conducted by our very own tour guide, Hortensia d'Antiqua (voiced by Blackadder's Helen Atkinson-Wood).

Alongside the living map, an equally beautiful street map is used to give quick navigation shortcuts between locations. Our City Directory gives a non-map-based way to navigate around the city, and provides a complete list of locations in one handy reference, while an annotated Street Index gives a quick way to navigate the city by street name.

Finally, we've integrated Apple’s Game Center system, to track your progress through the city. As you discover new locations and characters on the map, you'll unlock achievements, all of which can be shared with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

The end result is The Ankh-Morpork Map – the first ever Discworld app, and the first ever living, breathing map of an entire fantasy city.